E40: Become smarter, calmer and stronger with natural biohacking - Lost Empire Herbs CEO

28:38And therefore, I don't need to know exactly where the problem is. Because if I attack it by 21 different sides, I'm much more likely to win. Right. Yep. Yeah, so I'll give another example. In injury, for instance, right? Most people would think that an injury is just a physical problem. problem and in many cases that is definitely a useful lens to go at and we can look at physical again this is kind of a fractal thing right so we can look at structural components like is there issues you know in some cases like surgery is useful in other cases surgery is not in fact in many surgeries like placebo beats it out right that's an interesting area of placebo research that most people don't know about but we can look at like you know how are you moving then we can look at the the physical through the biochemical and this can be taking things internally as well as applying it topically, we can do something such as massage or body work on it.

29:36So these are different ways of looking at the physical. But I've worked with many people on the emotional component of injuries. One of the techniques I've employed is EFT or emotional freedom technique, also known as meridian tapping, energy psychology, goes by a bunch of different names. But this is a way of looking specifically at the emotions that may be tied up in how you got injured in the first place. I had a woman that had chronic shoulder pain for something like, I think it was seven years, maybe even longer than that, over a decade. And just doing a couple rounds of tapping, focusing on the emotions of the injury of the initial event where this happened, the pain went away completely and did not return.

30:18Now, it doesn't always work this well, but the fact that it sometimes works like this is pretty interesting because if you think about it, all the cells in our body are being replaced in something like seven years. So if you have a chronic injury, what is actually keeping it there? There's some sort of block. And this could be in the neurology, but it could be an emotional block that is keeping that stuck in that place. And by actually working using that lens of the emotions, specifically and working with a tool that helps to free up that energy, then sometimes amazing things happen with that.

30:53So again, I like to use all these lenses, you know, doing some physical things to support that can be great. Sometimes that's all you need. But working at these other levels, the mental, emotional, the energetic is going to also have some useful results in many cases. That's really interesting. And it makes so much sense. So as a recap, let's just do a small recap here, because I think it's a really, really important way to look at any kind of pain or problem that anyone could experience. If you experience any kind of physical, emotional or mental pain, what are the five lenses through which you should look at them and apply some practical exercises to be more likely to find, I mean, to solve the problem because you attacked it the right way?

31:40Yeah. And let me be clear, this is not just for pain. That's a useful case, but any sort of problem or issue that you're working with. So let's say your sleep is not so good. Again, you could use this model, but looking at the physical, the energetic, the emotional, the mental, and the spiritual. And these are the five different ways of looking at things that I like to use. Let's take an example of sleep because there's so many people who suffer from insomnia. I think one person in three experienced some sort of symptoms of insomnia, which is massive. Someone has an insomnia, okay? Someone is suffering from trouble, sleeping, falling asleep, or staying asleep, which are two different things.

32:27What would you tell them regarding these five lenses that they can try for each of these lenses to optimize the chances of beating insomnia problems? Yes. So let's start with the physical level, your sleep environment, you know, blackout curtains. Do you have devices in your room that are emitting light? Are you practicing poor sleep hygiene in that you're watching TV right before going to bed, for instance? There's different factors like this. Then, of course, herbs would fit in here or other supplements, you know, melatonin. uh valerian uh some of the ones that we sell like ashwagandha can really be helpful for sleep so this these are some ways of looking at that physical then you know when is the last time you're eating and what sort of food some people have some blood sugar issues uh that can disrupt sleep and is the problem specifically are you having trouble falling asleep with insomnia or are you waking up later and then not able to fall back asleep so we want to look at these different things and doing something like an aura ring or other sleep tracking device to give us some data about specific things can be really useful.

33:42So in general, just because of our society and our culture, the physical realm is very big and we can look at a lot of stuff in here. Emotional, right? Again, like if you're watching TV and you're watching dramas that have, you know, high swings of emotion, this could be setting your nervous system up in a sort of way where you are getting a bit jacked up and with this energetic component we could look at you know the the vagus nerve tone the apparent sympathetic versus the sympathetic uh different qualities of this there can be some energy drills that can actually like calm you down in a different way um although i have these five different lenses they they overlap in a certain way right so certain energetic drills like i was talking about are also going to probably calm down the emotions, right?

34:32So entering into a meditative state, even doing something like a one hour routine where you are really, you know, turning down the lights, not watching TV, disconnecting from your phone, turning off your Wi-Fi, even doing these things as you get yourself into an emotional state that is more ready for bed is going to be useful. Then the mental side of things we can look at are specific, you know, are the thoughts racing. There can be some specific practices for that, such as, you know, if your mind's racing, write things down. Because your mind likes to hold on and fixate on things by writing them down, then that's kind of captured.

35:07And sometimes that allows the mind to let go. Again, a meditative practice is going to help with this. And we can look at strategies in an NLP sort of sense of how do you fall to sleep? Like what specific sequence do you go through that helps you to get mentally into a sleeping, being asleep. Then spiritual, you know, depending on your relationship to the divine, you know, we could look at something like prayer. I have a friend that has some horrible insomnia stuff, and she went through past life stuff that she was exploring that may be related to the sleep. So again, depends on your beliefs in this area, but these are just some of the ways we could look at that full stack for an issue such as sleep.

35:49Amazing. A quick one before the big herbalism part. Hypnosis. You're also a big fan of hypnosis, which I also did quite a lot of, and I think it's super interesting. Does it really work? yeah i wouldn't be doing it if it didn't so uh nlp did like study hypnosis one the big uh hypnotist of the air milton erickson and a lot that was developed uh from that nlp in some ways is working with like a more of a waking trance but really plays a lot into hypnosis so this like the visualization is another tool that i found really useful this is something that you You know, you get that physical relaxation, but we're working specifically like we can look for those emotional blocks or those mental blocks playing with beliefs.

36:42Hypnosis is a great tool to be working more with the subconscious or unconscious mind and not just the conscious. And since the unconscious is driving a lot of things, a lot of the results in our life, it's a great tool to work with. So I've used it in a wide variety of things. But again, going back to the strength training, hypnosis is a great tool. I've hypnotized people on stage to become stronger. So it definitely works. And I have like pre-recorded hypnosis that help people focus on different things from being stronger to more flexible to greater endurance and have had some great results in clients doing these things.

37:20Well, you wrote a book called Mental Muscle where you dive into mental training and herbs performance. What's your key message for people throughout this book? Yeah. So I didn't cover the herbs so much in Mental Muscle, but this was focused on using hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming and how to apply that specifically to the gym, to strength training, to fitness. Because most people, you know, everyone has heard those same quotes, you know, you got to believe in yourself in order to succeed, right? But what most people are missing is actual like step-by-step procedures. Like, how do you believe in yourself, right?

38:01How do you visualize in a specific way that is going to enhance performance? So mental muscle was taking everything I'd learned in these fields and really applying it specifically to that area. So if you want to get stronger, if you're using fitness for fat loss or for muscle gain, how do you apply these techniques in specific concrete ways that allow people to get results?

38:25let's move on to the big topic of the day herbalism what is herbalism okay broad question uh we really like to look at herbalism from sort of a chinese medicine perspective in that herbs is not just green leafy plants herbs can be animals it can be insects it It can be minerals. It can be definitely plants are a large part of it, but also fungi as well. So it's a broad look at different things that can help support human health and performance. And herbalism is about looking at what can be taken, what herbs can support, which sort of things. And really, in the end, developing a relationship with these plants.

39:13Then you can get much better results. Again, looking more at the root causes rather than just the symptom, a leavement that many people are looking at. Some people claim that herbs and supplements are a hoax. How do you respond to these criticisms? I don't. I mean, that's just, it's a stupid opinion. So it's wrong and proven wrong just by looking at the results people are getting, right? Right. Yes, there can be a placebo effect with herbs and supplements. But and I've looked at the placebo effect a lot more than most people. Again, I was talking about placebo surgeries. When you look at the fact that a surgeon can do an incision on the knee, but do no actual surgery.

39:59And in many cases, this performed better than surgeries. Right. And you have people literally going from being in a wheelchair to getting up and playing basketball after a placebo surgery. okay when you understand this you understand a little bit about how powerful the mind can be and so you can actually have a placebo effect by believing in the herbs by believing in the supplements you can have additional effect uh on top of the actual effect of things that are happening now everyone is different so some people are not going to have great results even with herbs right they may be looking at a specific issue where herbs are not sufficient to fix the root causes, right?

40:40In many cases, herbs can help, but in other cases, herbs may not be the tool for the job. Again, why look at a wide range of tools, but there is no doubt. I mean, people have used herbs for all of human history. Only in the last hundred years or so have we gotten away from using herbs and look at the state of our health today. Chronic health conditions are on the rise. And yes, this has to do with endocrine disrupting chemicals and pollution throughout the world in a variety of different ways. So there's all these factors, but we have, for the most part, lost the use of herbs, which have been used in every community, every place in the world, every indigenous people, every tribe had the herbs of their local area to help support their health.

41:23So if you want to call that a hoax, it's hopeless for you. Don't use them. We'll take them. An interesting way to look at that is actually you mentioned the placebo effect, which is incredibly important. And I was talking the other day, I was talking about kinesiology and magnetism with actually my flatmate. And I believe in all that stuff. I love as soon as I can go, I just go. And literally after 15 minutes of kinesiology, you feel much lighter. You're like, oh man, I had this crazy back pain and he's like pressing super hard your feet. And then the back pain is maybe not gone fully because it's going to take some time, but like you feel much better already.

42:03And then he starts to say, yeah, but you know, this is all placebo and actually it's proven that placebo works. I think a fair question here to prove whether herbs are more placebo driven or there is actual result is can people who do not believe in herbs, because before you said, you said, if you believe in the herb, it might give you even better results because of a placebo effect, right? And we have testimonials from customers that they're desperate, so they're willing to try things, but they had no faith in the herbs in the first place and had some amazing results from it. And there are countless placebo-controlled scientific studies, which are the gold standard, right?

42:46So you got sugar pills versus the herbal intervention, and that shows that the herbs work in many things. And oftentimes, it is backing up with the traditional use of that herb. whatever ancient wisdom was there, we're finding that the herbs often, more often than not, do specifically that and they beat placebo. So the science is there. And if you think about just the logic of how the world is built, I mean, I believe that if there is a problem, there is a solution somewhere, because otherwise the problem would not even exist, because it always tends towards this kind of neutrality concept that I talked about before, you know.

43:23And so therefore, if there is a problem out there, probably there is a solution out there. And the most logical place to find it is probably in the nature itself. And it's probably been here for a very long time. Yeah, I agree with that. And that could be like a spiritual outlook on life. But I find that's a useful belief to have. And again, it's not always easy, right? The first thing you try may not be sufficient. People often say, like, I've tried everything. No, you haven't. No one has tried everything. There are thousands of healing modalities. There are tens of thousands of herbs out there.

44:01No one has tried everything. I've heard some stories of people that have really like they have tried a lot and they've often got great results because if that's what you're doing, you're going through the trial and error, trial and success, finding what works, then you're going to get results. It's about keep trying out there and not giving up. The only way that you really fail is to give up on something, in my opinion. Absolutely. Let's take a few concrete examples where herbs can make a massive difference in people's life. We live in an anxiety epidemic. Is anxiety something that can be treated or supported in some sort of way with herbs?

44:44And if yes, which ones? Yeah, you use the word treated. So I'm just going to put the medical disclaimer in here. We cannot treat herbs. I'm not a medical doctor. I don't play one on TV. Everything that I'm talking about here, I like to say is my philosophical advice. This is my philosophy of health and how I look at things. So herbs, according to the established authorities, cannot treat any sort of disease. What they can do is help support healthy functioning, right? So anxiety, this can be generalized anxiety disorder where it's a specific thing from the DSM. Herbs can't help with that. But everyone has anxious feelings.

45:24Herbs can help with those anxious feelings, right? So if you catch my drift there, some of the herbs that come to mind for that is, first of all, ashwagandha. Ashwagandha is one of the top herbs from Ayurvedic medicine. So coming from India, it is a root that helps with a wide range of functions. It is an adaptogen. I mentioned those a little bit earlier in the call, but it's a little bit different than most of the adaptogens. So for instance, rhodiola, schizandra, cordyceps, these are somewhat stimulating in their effect. And a lot of people love them for that reason. But ashwagandha is more calming in its effect.

46:01So while it is helping the body better adapt to stress, it has a gently calming function. Some people find that like actually taking it right before bed, it is an herb that is going to help them fall asleep. But in general, it's not a sedating herb, right? So you can take it in the morning and you're not going to be tired throughout your day. What ashwagandha seems to do is the things that stress people out, just don't stress them out as much. And that is a wonderful effect. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard of people like, oh, you know, I started picking ashwagandha and this thing that would have stressed me out and caused all sorts of problems.

46:37It was like, no big deal. Right. Yeah. Countless stories like that. So ashwagandha is a great herb in this way that can help with anxious feelings, but also be supportive to health. It can help with testosterone. It has a wide range of different functions. But this is one area and one herb that helps support with that. there's two others i tried that i absolutely love one is called albizia it's more like when i really feel like i'm getting very anxious like basically i always tell people albizia is the exact opposite of caffeine because the caffeine is gonna put you into this fight or flight response where you're gonna be very alert but you're gonna be kind of jittery and like pretty much anxious albizia for me is creating the exact opposite so i don't know if you want to elaborate a bit about albizia and the other one is blue vervain which i know is one of the you actually love yes yeah so albizia this is one coming from chinese medicine uh in the extract we use both the bark as well as the flowers from this tree and it is considered in chinese medicine one of strong shen herbs shen is synonymous with spirit and one of the three treasures it has a very strong mood regulating effect right so a lot of people do take this one for sleep as well uh it just puts you in like a calm relaxed state and one of our stronger herbs for doing that so that that is a fantastic one uh then blue vervain yes this is one of my specific favorites i'm more of a tincture person and we have a powdered extract of albizia so i don't use that one as much but i love blue vervain it is known as a bitter nervine so it has this extremely bitter taste to it but that is actually part of its function that bitter taste actually starts up that cool draining nervous system function so when i take blue vervain as soon as the drops hit my tongue like we want to talk about placebos or can you feel i love these herbs where you can feel the effects right away when blue vervain hits my tongue i feel my nervous system just let go of energy just like let go of stress and i feel it in my muscles it's not a muscle relaxant but it relaxes the nerves that interface with the muscles so in this way the muscles then relax themselves uh so yeah blue vervain it is you know as a reputation some people call it this is a trademark term so we shouldn't use it but liquid xanax and of course it's not as strong as the pharmaceutical that none of the herbs are as strong as pharmaceuticals but again going back to that conversation of being more gentle and holistic in action we can get great results without necessarily having the same side effects i mean xanax has withdrawal and dependency issues and it's a controlled substance and all that so definitely if we can use something that is quite a bit more gentle uh then let's go for it so blue vervain is one of my top herbs it's actually known as like specific for type a personalities and entrepreneurs for people that are running in their mind too much and need to get into their body.

49:39Blue Vervain is a great one because it will just drop you out of your head and into your body. The next big one is depression. Can depression be treated? I mean, I don't know what other words to use. I'll use treated, but we both understand that it's not the right word, right? Can depression be treated through the use of testosterone boosting supplements and nootropics? Yeah, so again, depression can be like depressive disorder or we all just natural human condition. We get depressed from time to time, feelings that are lower or feeling like we're being pushed down. So this is an area where definitely you want to look at what is going around in your life and what specific issues there.

50:25So in general, with depression, I like to look at like, you know, why are you, why am I feeling depressed? Is it external circumstances and what can be done about those? In many cases, if herbs are helping here, it can be a bit of a band-aid approach. So we definitely don't want to just like focus on the symptom, but then what can we do with it? All the herbs we just talked about, those may be useful in these. So with albizia, So, for instance, I said it was mood regulating, right? This doesn't mean that it just brings you down, but it can also help you to uplift into sort of a peaceful state, right?

51:03So, this is something that may be useful in that regard. Some of the adaptogens that I talked about, rhodiola, ashwagandha, again, because, you know, the effects of stress on our life. And in modern-day humanity, we have chronic stress conditions, right? We're all stressed, whether this is from toxicity, EMFs, our boss finances, whatever is going on, the world falling apart in front of my eyes. We have a lot of stressors going on. So being able to handle those stressors better, the adaptogens can certainly help with depressive mood and thoughts in certain circumstances. So these would be a few of the areas.

51:42Anything that is a Shen herb. So what comes to mind is Reishi. Reishi mushroom. This is one of the top herbs in Chinese medicine known as the mushroom of immortality. Really great for all the medicinal mushrooms are great for immune enhancing effects in general. But reishi is well known for just helping to support the mood to kind of like stabilize again to have that peaceful effect. So this is another one that comes to mind. Awesome. Oh, and you mentioned hormones. Hormones. Yeah, so men especially, but this is again, women have testosterone too, and it has important functions for them. Testosterone is a neural hormone.

52:21So it is active within our brain and our neurology. Having too low of testosterone can definitely lead to signs of depression. so if uh and this is something that can be relatively easily blood tested so you can look at the levels there but yeah in general you're going to feel much better if you have more testosterone flowing through your body so testosterone is helpful for feeling successful feeling confident feeling energized this is going to be a important area to look at as well um so that's important thing like not just i have symptoms of depression but why am i depressed Is this external factors?

52:58Is it because of low testosterone? Is there some other issues going on within the body that we can look at? If we look more deeply at the issue, those five levels I looked at were not just how do you treat or go after a thing, but what is the cause of the thing? So if we can look at these issues in different ways, then we can often get better results. and that can help with the targeting. If the issue is on emotional level, then oftentimes an emotional supportive methodology is going to support. Something that comes to my mind based on what you're saying is, and then we'll continue with a bunch of really important topics that can be supported with herbs, is today I feel bad, I'm going to the doctor.

53:45The doctor gives me a pill to treat a symptom, right? I mean, most people do that. If I'm aware that there is herbs out there and that there's different ways to support and to look at underlying root cause of problems. What practitioner or who do I go talk to? Because there's too many things out there. I don't know what to do. But I listen to this podcast. I think it's really interesting. and I want to try something new, but I need to talk to someone who knows that stuff and can guide me, especially in this diagnosis of where my problem potentially lies and what are the few things I should start doing in this holistic world to cure my problem.

54:37So in general, I would say, one, you can find people that are practicing herbalists. and they can help to point you in the right direction. Further, I would say a naturopath. So a naturopath is essentially a doctor, but one that uses much more natural things in general. They're going to have a lot of training around herbalism. Again, I want to address this that, you know, sometimes drugs have their place and you need that stronger intervention. It does come with greater risks. But if you are having a problem, as long as it's not acute, you know, we're our doctor's best. If you have your arm torn off, then you don't want to see an herbalist in that moment, right?

55:16You want to go to a hospital. You want to pump you full of drugs to be able to handle the pain, to address the thing, try to reattach the arm, whatever. That, in those acute medical conditions, like war battle type trauma, that's where our doctoring in medicine really came from. That is specifically where doctors are great. Outside of that, with more chronic conditions, doctors have less efficacy. So working with a naturopath or an herbalist there can be quite useful. So the way I look at problems is can we get results with lower level interventions? Lower level meaning that something like herbs natural, it can have some effect, but not likely to have the side effects.

55:57And in certain circumstances, if things get worse, then you may need to go for those bigger approaches. But this is how I like to look at things overall. Let's continue with another big one. Today, we are all using all these social media apps. At work, we're using all these different applications with these notifications, Slack, WhatsApp, email. And so this is, and the content we also consume is very short-term form. Therefore, our attention is really decreasing. It's very difficult to, I was talking to the co-founder, CEO of a huge, I mean, 14 billion company, blockchain.com. You know them because you're also active in crypto.

56:53We'll talk about that later, actually. And he was saying that one of his biggest problems is he's not able anymore to just sit down and read a book or long text, you know, or to listen to something or to watch a film without looking at your phone or doing different things. So the next big one for me is low attention. Some people call this ADHD. You know, we kind of like this, it's kind of like a trend. Ah, I have ADHD. Everybody has ADHD. And probably we're all developing sort of like ADHD just because of the way all these apps are built. And how exactly. So how can herbs help those who suffer from low attention, which is pretty much everyone right now?

57:35Yeah. Yeah, again, I'd say the focusing on the environment, because the problem is indeed caused by that, where you have this like super normal stimuli, this dopamine driven sort of behavior of like looking for likes and the thing that's going to hijack your limbic system. You know, people are on social media oftentimes just to get pissed off, depending on what's in their feed. So these are, yeah, in many cases, like fasting from these or putting structures in place. So you're not constantly like this because the more you do it, the more it's going to feed that cycle. And again, herbs may be able to help to some degree, but they're going to be a bandaid if you just continue to approach your life like this.

58:19right so what can you do to be able to detach and focus is a trainable skill right so if we are constantly on tiktok where it's 15 second videos like we're training our focus to only be able to last that long before it's on to the next thing versus watching a movie or reading a book so if you want to do these things then work on practicing these things and of course again like the sleep we talked about you can support the right kind of environment you know turn off your phone put it somewhere else so you you won't have that you may still have that compulsion but you're not going to be able to check it so easily and just sit down in nature or in a room with good lighting to read a book some of the herbs that can help one my favorite for focus is bacopa if you look at yeah no tropic formulas out there so no tropics there are drugs modafinil for instance there are a lot of isolated nutrients.

59:17The B vitamins are going to be supportive for neurology, for instance, and then there are herbal ingredients. I like to call bacopa the number one herbal nootropic. This is something that is included in lots of nootropic formulas, but I like to work with just the herb itself, and it's typically not done in like an isolated nutrient way. They use the full plant because that seems to work better. When I take bacopa, especially the extract that we have, which is a full spectrum extract that CO2 extracted. It doesn't taste great. It tastes like a hamster cage smells, but it works. I feel immediate like mental focus come in, which is it's a somewhat subtle effect.

59:58I'm not saying everyone is going to have this. And in fact, the scientific studies, the research out there shows that the best effects to like memory and focus and cognition come after taking it for like one to two months. But for me, I actually feel like an immediate focusing effect come on. And that's a nice thing to have. So again, going back to this tangible benefit, I can feel that effect. So I know it's working. I could say it's placebo, but I don't care if it's placebo, it's working. Right. So bacopa is my number one for that. I mentioned mushroom brain. The main ingredient of that is lion's mane mushroom.

1:00:35This one works. I don't have such an immediate effect from it. I feel that little bit with our formula, but with lion's mane, to me, it works a bit more in the background. Other people do feel it more immediately, but this is supporting nerve growth factor and brain-derived nootropic factor. It is helping the nervous system to grow and be healthy. So it's being researched for looking at neurodegenerative diseases. There's plenty of research out there and a lot more coming down the pipeline, but this is really helping to support the nervous system in a bunch of different ways. So it can help with that memory, that concentration.

1:01:14Taking these different herbal ingredients can really help to support, have a healthy neurology, which I think is important. Again, that toxicity of our world, we are under constant bombardment from stuff. So we all need support in these things, especially if we want to live a long, healthy and thriving life. You mentioned modafinil, and actually there There was quite some over usage of non-natural drugs such as Adderall and Ritalin amongst teenagers to perform better at school. It was a big topic. I think there was even something on Netflix about that, a documentary on Netflix. Could teenagers take herbal supplements instead?

1:01:55Yeah, definitely. So many herbs are going to be safe for younger people. There are some where you'd want to stay away from. But in most cases, like I give my daughter, we give her different herbs, right? And have given it since she was a baby. I give her tinctures, right? Easy to take and helps with termood and everything else. So definitely, like I was saying before, you know, there are some cases where Adderall, you know, I know people that have had great benefits from doing that. But again, that's a higher level intervention, maybe some side effects. Can we get similar sort of functionality off of just using herbs in the first place?

1:02:33This is a place I would start at before going to drugs. Again, if you're in a non-acute, non-critical condition, then you have the time to play with these sort of things and see if you can get some benefit from them. Another big one is low libido. So in the last and low testosterone, we kind of started to talk about that before. In the last 50 years, we've witnessed a total wreckage of testosterone levels amongst men due to different factors such as diet, lifestyle, pollution, and more. Let's say I'm a man in his 30s, 40s, 50s, tired, with low mood and low sex drive. Do I go for testosterone replacement therapy or herbs?

1:03:16And why? Yep. So same thing we've been addressing that that has its place, testosterone replacement therapy. There are some side effects, some issues that come with that and the cost and the fact that you got to get injections or pellets. That is going to help in many cases. Again, can we address the issue with herbs in the first place? Lower level intervention likely going to cost less unless your insurance covers that because insurance does not cover herbs. Then, yeah, can we get the benefit there? I've mentioned a little bit about pine pollen. That is our best-selling herb, and that's kind of what we started the company with.

1:03:53Pine pollen is unique in that it has testosterone, DHA. It actually has human hormones in it. They're not just human, but it also has phytoandrogens. A lot of people, if they've been in the health space for any amount of time, they've heard of phytoestrogens. This is estrogen-mimicking chemicals that are found in nature, phyto meaning plant, found in things like soy and hops and flax. Some of these can definitely have benefits. Phytoestrogens doesn't necessarily mean bad, but in something like soy, which is overused and overprocessed, there can definitely be some problems there. And I want to distinguish these from xenoestrogens, which are endocrine disrupting chemicals that also have estrogenic effects.

1:04:35These are found in plasticides like bisphenol A, BPA, but also even if you have BPA-free stuff, it may be having other bisphenols in it, BPG, BPF, which may be just as bad. Then there's pesticides. A lot of these have estrogenic effects as well. Some are different. Some are antithyroid. Some are antiandrogen. So in general, we definitely want to look at these things because this is a large reason we have a population level decline of testosterone is a pervasiveness of these in there. Of course, yeah, training, fitness and sleep and diet are going to be important. But can we reduce the load of these chemicals that are having these effects?

1:05:16That's one of the first places I like to start. Then can we support it with something such as pine pollen that's going to have these phytoandrogens that help you support and boost testosterone within the body? Another great one I also mentioned a little bit, Tongkat Ali. This is a root out of Malaysia, also from Indonesia, that has some great effects on testosterone. It doesn't contain any testosterone itself, but it has these components that help to ramp up our body's own production and generally keep it freely available. There's many other testosterone herbs, but these are number one and number two sellers at Lost Empire Herbs.

1:05:51And there's a reason for that. They're working for a great many people. How about women in their early 30s who feel more tired and less horny than in their early 20s? What are the best hormonal balancing herbs that are more likely to make them horny again? If that's what they want. Yes. So women's hormones are significantly more complex than men's. Men's in general, like because of all the factors I just addressed, like if we can increase testosterone in general, that's going to be useful to most men out there, especially if they are suffering some lack of drive, like a libido type issues. For women, while many of them actually do have low testosterone, some of these same herbs absolutely can help.

1:06:36we also have to look at the issue of like progesterone and estrogen much more men also have progesterone estrogen and those can be too low or too high in certain circumstances so again we all have the same hormones it's just different levels but women specifically they have their monthly cycle and that complexifies things it makes it a bit harder to say just in general you need this thing but again if specifically libido is an issue i would look at low testosterone being an issue and therefore some of these same herbs that can help. One of the things that we have at Lost Empire is a formula called Athena's Women's Formula.

1:07:14This has some of the pine pollen in it, but it also has Dong Quai and Shadavari. These are the number one herbs from Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine for women in general. Just thousands of years of reputation supporting a wide range of women's issues from, yeah, like PMS type of issues, but also helping with menopause and easing through that transition, a wide range of issues, and these can be really helpful in there. So we've had some amazing, amazing results for women with these formulas as well. I'll also mention Blue Vervain. I talked about that before, really good for that instant stress relief and for pain, but can also be quite helpful for women's reproductive issues as well and alleviating some symptoms there.

1:08:02So again, we want to look at all the different factors and what's really in play. But yeah, if libido is an issue, then I would say looking for some testosterone support can be very useful. And there are women that are getting like testosterone replacement therapy. That's a growing thing as well. But again, that has its place. Can we do it with something more natural like herbs in the first place? How do I avoid building tolerance to these herbs? because obviously if I take these every day, I'm more likely to not feel as much of an effect at some point. So yeah, tolerance can be a thing. In some cases with some herbs, then taking it every day consistently is likely the best way to take it.

1:08:47And again, this does depend on the person. It depends on the effect that you're going for. If you look at most scientific studies, if the person's taking it every day and it's being done in that way in order to look at the benefits oftentimes coming 30 days 60 days 90 days down the road so there's definitely a time and place for consistency what you've been talking about your your way of cycling the herbs so specifically with the hormones i like to think of it as a game of musical chairs the hormones as well as pretty much everything else in the the body is working through a variety of feedback loops.

1:09:25So if your testosterone is too low, then the hypothalamus is reading that signal, sending different hormones, follicle stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormones to the testes. And those are then saying, hey, increase the testosterone supply. But then this feedback, oh, the testosterone is increased. So we're going to decrease these chemicals. And that's an oversimplification of how things are working in the body and you have a thousand different feedback loops going on, right? So if we are boosting something, and this can be an issue with testosterone replacement therapy, oftentimes, okay, we're just adding a whole bunch of testosterone into the body.

1:10:04What's going to happen there? Oh, we have too much testosterone. This is actually going to be converted over to estrogen. So in many cases, what doctors will do, if you're on TRT, you're also going to be prescribed an aromatase inhibitor. That's the enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen. Uh, so yeah, if we just increase this one thing, what are the, the down cycle effects on that? Um, so again, going back to the herbs by taking something, you'll have some sort of effect, but if you're cycling that herb and that could be switching every day, a different herb, like you're talking about, or something that we recommend with our pine pollen tincture or our tonkat ali is to do something like five days on two days off or take a bottle for a month, then lay off for a month.

1:10:46this way the the body may ramp up in its effects that this is bringing but it doesn't come to overly rely on those effects by having some period of time off your body can go back into its normal cycle and then be more sensitive to the effects because it's not necessarily that taking something too long is going to give you negative effects certainly there are some cases where that's but your body is going to build tolerance to it if you're already always getting this signal from the outside, then body's going to adjust all of its feedback loops to that signal. By dropping that out, the body needs to increase its natural production.

1:11:23And then it's doing that, then you bring it back in and it's still in that cycle, if that makes sense. So these are some of the ways there are no hard and fast rules. Again, comes down to the individual, work with something, try it out, see if it works for you, adapt from there. Awesome. Is there such thing as a a happiness herb. Say I wake up in the morning, I'm going through a bad breakup or I lost a family member and I feel really sad and depressed. Is there a happiness herb I can take to uplift my mood when the underlying issue from my sadness is not a long-term chemical imbalance? Yeah, so we mentioned albizia.

1:12:09That is known as the tree of happiness. So this will be one of the great herbs for that purpose. Another one that comes to mind is the happy berry. This is goji berry. Also often been called like the gateway herb of herbs because this one actually tastes great. It's just a berry. So it's very gentle and nourishing in its effects. But it actually is working across a wide range of systems in the human body and just helps to support mood in a very general way. people that take this just yeah tend to report just a bit more of happiness going around so yeah there are some herbs that can help with happiness again any of those ones that we talked about with like anxiety and depression helping to support those things and just support mood in general is going to have some of this effect i mentioned our athena women's formula so that has the herbs i talked about there but it's also rounded out with four berries schizandra goji longin and sea buckthorn so these have all of their own effects are really like nourishing and helps us support mood as well that's one of the reasons why that is a popular formula for us

1:13:23i want to take care of my health i want to build a lean body and muscle what supplements should i take if i want to become stronger and support muscle growth?

1:13:38The first one that comes to mind is sustanch. And before I dive into that, let me say that. So me and my brothers, we started with a real like focus on athletics and the different functions there. What turns out like herbs that help with athletics help with sexual function. It's like the same herbs, the same underlying energies and reasons behind them. Testosterone, of course, being important for both of them. So sustanche is known as sustanche in your pants or the stock enlarger. It is well known for its functions on libido and sexual performance. But I also find it's like one of these great ones that seems to be helping in muscle size and just feeling strength and power as well.

1:14:25There's some evidence it's really early, but that sustanche functions as a selective androgen receptor modulator. So this, I won't go into all the details in this and it's pretty complicated, but basically those feedback cycles of hormones I was talking about with compounds in sustanance, or there are drugs that do the same thing. You can be selectively targeting certain androgen receptors and modulating the function of those versus other ones. So testosterone has earned a bad name in hair loss and that's where it's DHT or dihydrotestosterone. Although, yes, there is some implication there. We don't necessarily want to take it all away.

1:15:07That's going to cause some issues like finasteride that you mentioned early on, right? Actually, this was exactly my next question. Okay. Most of the testosterone related products out there.

1:15:26because they're responsible for creating more DHT, testosterone, more DHT, more hair loss, right?

1:15:37Even creatine is the same. It works the same way. It's a big component using the gyms. I mean, some people say it's good. It's great. Some people say it's bad. Some people say it's actually the best supplement you could take. But if you understand how it works for certain guys who are more prone to hair loss because of DHT, creatine will cause some sort of hair loss indirectly, right?

1:16:03Is there an herb that can replace creatine? Or do these herbs that help support muscle also support hair growth or support hair follicle? Or is there another way to build lean muscle mass and at the same time promoting hair growth with herbs? Great quick question. So with the DHT, and it's not only implicated in hair loss, but also in prostate growth with benign prostatic hyperplasia. um so both of these areas do have like an overabundance of uh dht receptors so the the main issue the way i see it is it's not so much a function like how much dht do you have in your body if we're looking at it systemically but how much is going to these areas and so if you do increase dht throughout your body which comes with some benefits for like muscle mass for sexual function really important for these things but then it may be attaching to these receptors so i don't have the answers you know if i could cure uh male pattern baldness then i would be much richer man than i am today i don't have all the answers just some additional questions and some things some directions to point people in so yeah we want to look at uh yeah can we have the benefits without getting the downside so there are some herbs that are supposed to uh limit the conversion of testosterone to DHT.

1:17:39Again, we want to be careful of doing this too much. I have to go. Sorry. My daughter just popped in. I'm still on the call right now. I saw her. I was wondering how long she would do it to come. Let's just start again this part because we're interesting. So we don't want to have the benefits without the negative side on the hair loss. Yeah. So we want to look at systemically how much DHT is in the body, and you can do that with serum blood testing, right? But then how much of it is going to specifically the hair follicles on the scalp or going to the prostate? And just with the prostate, I will mention that estrogen and the estrogenic chemicals are even more implicated in that than DHT.

1:18:28Those receptors seem to be picking up both those compounds. So we want to look at that. There are some herbs that can limit the conversion of testosterone to DHT. There's some research showing nettle root can do that. This is one of our best prostate herbs in general, just helping with like urination frequency, amazing benefits that people get. The pine pollen, although there's not any research to back it up, the reports from our customers show that it can be helpful in these functions as well. the tonkat ali although i mentioned it can help to increase testosterone and keep it freely available um it there also may be some of this effect of keeping um or limiting the dht conversion as well so again there's no specific answers i have that will help with all these things but some of these herbs you can play with and see is it causing an increase in this if not then you know and that's what you're going for, maybe not the right herb for you, but can you possibly get the muscle mass that libido increases without necessarily having the negative side effects?

1:19:34I'll also mention Hoshu Wu. This is an herb, not super hormonal. It's working a lot more in the background, one of our top anti-aging herbs, but this has a reputation of turning people's hair color back to normal. So if it's gone gray of actually restoring hair color, unfortunately this only happens in like 5 % of people or less, but some people do actually report this having that specific effect. And some people have reported that it helps their hair to come in thicker and stronger as well. So these will be some of the things that I look at if you're trying to address these issues. We were a bit more focused on men, I'd say, if we say, I want to become stronger and support muscle growth.

1:20:20So let's think about women who want to lose weight. What are the best supplements that help with weight loss? And this would apply to men just as well. So with weight loss, it is predominantly going to be a function of diet. So there are no miracle cures. And I want to address that because if you're looking for a miracle herb that's going to help you to shed 50 pounds, It doesn't exist, okay? What herbs can do is to help with your appetite and your energy metabolism to some degree. So they're going to be supportive of weight loss endeavors. So I really see if you are, you know, dieting or exercising, doing some things, these can be the thing that adds like 10 % or just makes it a little bit easier, which can make a significant difference.

1:21:10Number one that comes to mind is gynostema. This is known as the longevity grass. It actually has some of the same compounds as ginseng in it, the ginsenocides. And it's great because ginseng is like the most well-known herb in the world and the most expensive for that reason, especially if you're getting good quality ginseng. But gynostema has some of the same compounds as well as a host of different ones. It's really good for just like energy metabolism, even blood sugar regulating as well. So just taking this and you drink it as a tea, although it can be available in some other forms as well.

1:21:48Just taking it throughout the day is just going to help with your mood, your energy, your blood sugar, different factors like this. That's going to play a role. So I'd say that is my number one herb for that. Number two is Shilajit. We haven't talked about this one. This is known as the Destroyer of Weakness and the Conqueror of Mountains. I love those names. Like in Ayurveda, especially, they give the most legendary names and there's always like 10 different ones for the different herbs. Shilajit does a whole bunch of different things. And it's actually like a mineral pitch that comes out of the Himalayan mountains.

1:22:22Specifically, if you're looking for weight loss, I see the Shilajit powder as being a bit stronger rather than the resin. We have the two different forms available. And with the powder, we are seeing, again, energy metabolism. A lot of people feel energy from this herb. That's kind of the conqueror of mountains. Like you can hike nonstop on this. There's also some blood sugar regulating effects in there. And again, that's going to be a very important component for weight loss. There's also some like cognitive benefits and trace minerals and all kinds of things in shilajit that makes it a truly amazing herb.

1:22:57So the thing is, it does taste like dirt. So it's not the most palatable thing, but sometimes the effects are worth it. So I would say those are two herbs to look at for that function. We talked about quite a lot of different herbs now. So I think a logical question to close this chapter is what are the dosages to take? Is there such thing as a scientific dosage or does it depend on the person? um so in some cases where there is science behind these herbs and of all the herbs i've addressed some of them are going to have a lot more science some of them have next to zero science on them um so if we get for further so science progresses in a very slow fashion uh uh if we see that there are human trials there is going to be a specific dose in there but even with that that that matters because buying a shilajit from one place is not gonna be the same as a shilajit as the other.

1:24:01The extract ratio, the quality, how it's done, all these factors are gonna matter and that's gonna play into dosage. So in some scientific studies, yes, there may be a specific dosage that is studied and you can start with that if that is the case. But here's the thing, science is always looking for averages. Is there a statistical significant effect with this number of people versus the placebo control. And if there is, we say it quote unquote works. That does not mean it is going to work for you. You are an individual. Some of the people in that study, even though it worked, did not have the effects or they had side effects or they dropped out because of some issue, right?

1:24:42So just because it is scientifically proven or scientifically shown to have some effect doesn't mean it works for you as an individual. For all of our herbs, we have a recommended starting dose and sometimes that's a range on them this is it doesn't need to be as exact as a pharmaceutical uh there's a saying from paracelsus the the dosage makes something either a poison or a medicine this is very much true again too much water can kill you so we we don't want to go to too excessive of a range we also don't want to have too small of a range that nothing works but again and it's going to come to the person that's going to come to uh what they're trying to get.

1:25:23So we recommend you play with dosage, you know, start with our range, of course, start with that recommended range, start on the lower end, but work up to the maximum. And are you seeing the benefits? Do you want to see more benefits? In some cases, more is better, right? Just take more, you'll get more of the benefit. But that's not always the case. Sometimes more is less. So you take too much and you actually get an opposite effect. So again, Again, lots of different things. And we have some articles and information on our website as far as playing with how to do it, find the right thing for you.

1:25:56But yeah, there is no hard and fast rules here. And it also definitely depends on the herbs. Some of them are much more concentrated. So you're going to take a tiny dose. Some are not concentrated, sometimes just like the raw material of the herb. And you can take a much bigger dose. So we have dosages from like 100 milligrams, like a tiny spoon to three tablespoons. It's all over the place. I'm drinking a bottle of tincture at a time, but generally you're going to do a dropper full or two and that's going to be your dose. Awesome. So we talked about all these different herbs and techniques and things that people can do to feel better, become smarter, become calmer, become the best version of themselves.

1:26:39And you can apply this, you know, probably because you're an entrepreneur. I think you have two or three different companies. These things, if you don't have an underlying issue, applying these techniques and using these herbs is actually a big edge in life. And one of the areas where this can also really help, I think, is if you're trading or if you're investing. And one of the subjects that we love both, and we've been involved both for a while, is crypto. So you're a crypto investor too. I think you told me you bought your first Bitcoin at$240, which is probably a while back, around 2014 or 2015.

1:27:27How do you apply all your techniques and learnings that we talked about today to build an edge as a crypto investor? Yeah. And as an entrepreneur in general. Yeah. Yeah, so it's going to go back to some of the subjects we've talked about, but like establishing the right environment for doing this and being able to focus and concentrate for periods of time, whether this is like, you know, I don't do day trading, so I'm like not studying charts all day long, but I've certainly learned a bunch and being able to study the different tokens and investments and all that stuff. but yeah very much the same as working on my business so can i set myself up to be optimally productive and what does that look like again physical mental emotional energetic spiritual like this full stack is going to apply to my productivity in general and eventually like my financial health and assets as well so we can look at all these different things some of the herbs that are going to help with this again the the focus and the concentration uh it's not necessarily like oh i'm going to do a crypto trade so i'm taking bacopa right now it's not not like that but am i just supporting my cognitive function overall from taking these different herbs uh the stress relief is obviously going to play a role when the markets i mean crypto investing is a wild ride right so having the that stress relief and the ability to handle stress with the adaptogens is going to be helpful same with entrepreneurship so everything we've talked about applies and it's just again looking at the lens of performance in productivity and work and finances as well probably probably the key the two key thing the two key aspects here are how do i how do i increase my tolerance to stress and how do i make better decisions and obviously one is linked with the other because if i'm less stressed i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna make better decisions and that's what it all comes to in business, in investing and in life in general.

1:29:37And that's where all these techniques we talked about today and all these tools and all these herbs are actually, if you understand this, we were talking about looking at the problem from different angles and sort of saying, how do I attack the problems or how do I optimize my life by every different angle? And how do I improve 1 % here and 1 % there? And first, if I improve 1 % every day, I'm going to compound this improvement over time and become much better. But what if now I'm improving 1 % every day on multiple factors and angle? Then this is all going to compound with one another plus in time, and I'm going to end up in a much different place than I would have otherwise.

1:30:17Yeah. Tell me about your craziest experiences in terms of gains and loss in crypto, because you told me last time that you were kind of like doing a bit of degen thing, a bit of yield farming and all that stuff? Is there something crispy that you have, or spicy that you have to tell us? Yeah, I guess I'll share one of the... Something really bad that happened. That became like big losses. One of my most successful investments was Luna, Terra Luna. And it was also one of my biggest losses. It was really interesting with it, like i'd i'd written you know i was buying when it was like six to eight dollars and even earlier in that when it um um yeah had had that and then wrote it up over to like over a hundred dollars 120 and i took some profits along the way the thing was like i was i was so wrapped up in doing things so i'd be putting it in this yield farms and i made things overly complicated for myself to where it was um yeah it was hard to be able to keep the big picture in my mind uh i really had too much complexity in there and my intuition was telling me it was like oh i really shouldn't be holding luna and ust which was the algorithm peg stable coin that was related to luna um because if one falls the other's gonna falter as well however unfortunately like i was super busy at the time I had some internet issues so I didn't actually take action on that intuition though it was knocking at my door and then a short time later it all collapsed right and I had I understood it enough the algorithm thing so like when it was falling I got out so I preserved most of my money and definitely actually had gains in that however yeah it definitely was not a fun situation and watching the rest of the crypto market collapse.

1:32:11What happened with that is like, okay, I have things too complex. So I unwound most of my positions, like I had a bunch of stuff in DeFi kingdoms, Farming Jewel and whatnot, which was also very successful. But I unwound a lot of stuff just so I could have a simpler portfolio because I needed that. I had too much going on in my life where I couldn't give it all the focus and attention that it deserved. It was really great for me to really understand and develop skillset and like get my lay of the land in the cryptoverse. But right now I have a much simpler portfolio and I'm enjoying that. I'm looking forward to the next bull market, though, that's for sure.

1:32:49I'm going to take all the lessons I learned and really apply in a big way at that time.

1:32:57Just for people, I mean, people, most of the audience knows, Dokun was actually our fourth guest on the podcast. the fourth guest we ever had was dokun and the the fifth guest was remi teto from real vision co-founder of real vision who actually on the podcast itself told us and told all the lunatics that he was um he had 95 percent of his portfolio in luna and everybody went completely crazy so that's a interesting question i also got massively burnt on luna because we kind of ended up in the echo chamber through the podcast and the contacts that we had so that was a very interesting one and i also had some of my business money in ust which hurt which yeah we had some lost yeah lost empire herbs has some of its assets in crypto we had some in ust at the time not a whole lot okay but again i did like once it started collapsing got out so like 80 cents on the dollar and preserve most of the money there.

1:34:00Again, I think we still came out. In the business, it was a little bit of a haircut, but I knew once that was failing that it was failing. It was time to go. So Lost Empire Herbs had and still has, I believe, some money in crypto. Why? Is it more a play of, oh, I'm anticipating the next bull market and I want to increase our treasury? So it's more an opportunistic play or is it more a hedge because of what? When we talked last time, a couple of months ago, the US banking crisis was a big topic. And now no one talks about it anymore. Even though banks are still failing. Banks are still failing and the Fed is still raising rates, which means more banks are going to fail.

1:34:50But no one talks about it anymore. So what's your crypto play personally and in terms of businesses? Is it opportunistic or is it a hedge? Or actually you're thinking, actually, I can have both an opportunistic play at the same time as having a hedge. Therefore, it's a no-brainer. Yeah, so it is a bit of both. And I'll just say most of the assets, both personally and company-wide that are in crypto, are in Bitcoin at this point. just because we see Bitcoin dominance going up. And at some point, then it will be like move some of the money from Bitcoin to the other assets for the more speculative gains.

1:35:28But so right now it is, yeah, hedging as well as, you know, the time and place will come again. I don't think crypto is going anywhere. We've gone through this cycle before. It's going to happen again. So, yeah, that's kind of philosophy that I have personally and taking that into the company. We're in a really good cash position. So yeah, we have hedged with some physical assets with like precious metals as well as cryptos. And that's just the state of the world and how people are being unbanked as well as the bank failures going on, all that. So yeah, Bitcoin is a strong part of our portfolio right now.

1:36:05What's the next big thing that you are focusing on with Lost Empire Herbs? Right now we're growing, so we're starting to roll out some new products. We're getting some systems in. We're playing with the AI stuff that is out there for good or ill. I definitely have some reservations about the whole space and the direction of things, but I'm not going to put my head in the sand. So we're playing around with some stuff in that department as well. For example, like how can AI be useful? I mean, obviously in terms of system efficiency and all that stuff, fine. but like especially in the herbs sector.

1:36:46Yeah. So one of the things we're working on developing right now is just an AI chatbot for a website. Okay. The average person landing on our website has not heard of any of these herbs, doesn't know where to go. And we have tons of information. Like we see our responsibilities to educate people about the herb because again, that whole paradigm, like I don't know what an herb is. How do I take this? What's the dosage? All those factors play in. So we need to bring people into an herbal lifestyle. So we have great customer service people that really help people with this. We answer questions all day long.

1:37:20But can we put together a chatbot that has been trained on our entire website that knows all the stuff there? And so people can ask whatever questions they want and get pointed in the right direction. So this is something that is in development. I'm hoping to roll that out pretty soon. and just for it to be a useful tool that can help point people in the right direction to get them started with whatever questions they may have. Great. What's something you believe in and you believe gets stronger by the day? God. Interesting. Yes, I come from being atheistic a long time ago, but life circumstances and experiences have taken me out of that materialistic mindset and put me, I still don't know what exactly that means to believe in God and what exactly I believe at all that, but I do feel that is getting stronger.

1:38:16I mentioned that spiritual lens, and we didn't really talk about that too much. I'm still kind of coming to understand what that means for myself. But yeah, just belief in something beyond has become much stronger for me and continues to grow. Is there a specific moment in your life where you went from a phase to believing in something? Or it's more kind of a process that you've been through? yeah it's more of a a long slow process just kind of like chipping away at this culturally enforced materialistic atheistic mindset that is very strong in the west and it's been like hard to overcome and there's like two steps forward one step back so yeah there's while there's some stronger moments um important parts in it there um yeah it's still a process that i would say is unfolding.

1:39:15I would mess, I would laugh at myself for giving that answer just like a few years ago. I love it. I love it. What difference is, what concrete actual difference has it made to your life to believe in something greater than yourself? That's a great question. There is, I guess, more faith in life and feeling of support. I've gone through some truly horrendous stuff in the the past couple of years and in many ways this has helped to strengthen my faith um so there's a deeper and more full version of myself that is emerging out of all this and with that that that just feels i mean there's a whole bunch going on but with that feels tied to um spiritual strength i would say yeah i've always been a strong man or since I started doing this and really focus like, oh, physical strength.

1:40:13And can we apply mental strength? But the last few years especially have been really rounding out this both emotional strength and spiritual strength component as well. Is it something that you would tie to destiny? For example, I'm saying that because my mother, when I was younger, I broke everything, my knees, my meniscus, I had operations, multiple ones all through sport because I was just like too extreme and every time something bad would happen my mother was just saying kind of the easy way out you know feeling bad was this is destiny something greater or better will happen because this happened now is this part of you do you think that believing in God whatever that means is a way to explain things especially the bad ones to help understand them and accept them?

1:41:11Yeah. Well, what comes to mind is just synchronicity, right? Most people have heard of this. It was popularized by Jung, but this idea of like life events synchronizing that are beyond probability, right? And the amount of these, you know, some can be, if you're searching for it, you can definitely like find it, but some of these are just like mind-blowing. And also this idea of like golden threads where it's not necessarily synchronous events, but just seeing how one thing leads to the other. And I do believe in free will, like human beings, like choice is such a huge part of us. And I do think there's something about destiny as well.

1:41:49This idea that, you know, our souls plan some of the events, some of the big things in our life, specifically, I believe we're on earth here to grow and develop and to go through certain lessons. So yeah, some of these may be pre-planned. And I don't know, again, exactly what that means, but somehow I'm believing both in free will and destiny. And I think those are both important components to our life here on earth. Awesome. If there was a key takeaway for today, what would it be? Try some herbs. Yeah, just honestly play with them. So one of the things we do is we have a 365-day money-back guarantee.

1:42:31we honestly like want people to try things and get results if you don't get results you can get your money back so it's something we talked about probably is like oh i could use that right so try some of the herbs we talked about see if it were it's and get it from us if you want we do cool things as far as quality guarantee and make sure we have good stuff and obviously you love us here uh but you know even if it's other herbs or something you get local or whatnot try some herbs out see what they can do in your life i can say this stuff is absolutely amazing i can say that's the reason you're in this podcast because i love it right really yeah and i'm just like telling everyone all the time you should try these herbs you try these herbs this is amazing oh you have this issue you can try this and that and i've actually converted quite a lot of people into trying i actually wrote a mini ebook like i actually wrote when i went through all my shit i I wrote like a hundred page ebook with all these different herbs and a lot of other things, fasting and nutrition and fitness and all that stuff.

1:43:32And at some point during the last bull market in crypto, I was with a bunch of dudes in Dubai who made insanely well, but we're all depressed. Very depressed because this crypto stuff is like crazy addiction. And this is very bad for your dopamine receptor and for your mental health, which is what most people don't realize. Most people who are actually made it really well in crypto are actually pretty fucked up. And that's one of the side effects. So what I've done is I took this ebook I wrote a few years ago and I summarized it into about 10, 11 pages. And in there, there's a bunch about a part about testosterone boosting herbs and a part about sleep and a part about nootropics.

1:44:12And then there's links to the actual herbs, which are all linking to Lost Empire herbs because they're the best herbs out there. Thank you for that. So, yeah, thank you so much for doing this, Logan. That was awesome. Where can the audience connect with you? Yeah, so the website is lostempireherbs.com. I'm not super active on social media, though you may find me there from time to time. If people want to reach out, email is probably the best opportunities. My email is Logan, L-O-G-A-N, at lostempireherbs.com. Amazing. Thank you so much for this. Thank you for having me. It was a great conversation.

1:44:50It was awesome.